"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."

  Robert Frost, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" from The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright 1923.

 Broken promises are the real scandal at the VA. For many years well-intentioned and highly competent case workers and medical professionals have enthusiastically gone to work for the VA only to find themselves overwhelmed by need and ill-equipped to provide timely service.

 Three years ago the trend in for-profit content began to shift away from lists of product features and advantages to stories about customers who had used the product or service. Creatively written case histories became king of most for-profit content writing. In addition, more and more of this creative content began to be written for, and placed on, social networks. 

 Nonprofits have been experimenting with mobile and social networks for years. I have noticed, however, that they do not fully understand how social networks are different from traditional online communications and fundraising. 

The National Association of Social Workers states emphatically that: “Professional development is an essential activity for ensuring quality social work services. It is a self-directed process, which requires social workers to assume responsibility for the growth of their own professional knowledge base. Regardless of career stage, social workers are ethically required to keep informed of current research, theory, and techniques that guide social work practice to better serve clients and constituents.” 

 Most well-intentioned social workers take every opportunity to advance their professional knowledge, but few are given either the time or the tools to get the job done. 

Parents caught up in the downward spiral of their own substance abuse rarely know how to access community resources after they leave their first court appearance. Being parents, they are usually in good faith but don't know where to go to seek help and end up right back in court, still lost. They are usually unaware, and always confused by, the social welfare system that is available to help them become the parents they desperately want to be. 

In 1995 Daniel Goleman, a New York Times writer, published Emotional Intelligence - Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, and the entire business world, including non-profit, was introduced to the concept of emotional intelligence.

 After an initial flurry of interest, the concept lost favor because no one seemed to be able to measure emotional intelligence. Like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said about pornography, "I know it when I see it..." managers began to identify emotional intelligence when they saw it in an individual.

The Managing Director of a large non-profit recently shared this experience with me. When his best employee submitted her resignation he was devastated. 

"Why?" he asked, "Who has recruited you? I'll certainly match whatever offer you've received." 

"It's not about the money," she said. 

I recently interviewed a caseworker who had quit the business. She had burned out. I assumed I was about to hear a harrowing tale of towering caseloads, insensitive supervision, unruly clients, unreasonable hours, and unsatisfying outcomes. Yes, all of these factors contributed to her eventually quitting. But, the surprising factor that she kept coming back to, believe it or not, was PAPERWORK. That's right, paperwork! 

Early in my career - in the ancient days of paperwork, I was working for a large mortgage company. To say that the office was a mess of paper piled high in "in and out" boxes and on every available surface, would be a polite understatement. Early one Monday morning we were introduced to a new CFO. He walked around our massive office peering over mountains of paper to greet each loan processor warmly. Then he went to the front of the room, asked for attention, and announced a new efficiency plan he called..."No Carry-Overs". 

Ten Mexican American women from Santa Ana, California make jewelry, straw hats and blankets for sale at the swap meets in Southern California. They are all sisters and cousins in the Aranada family who have painstakingly developed small craft businesses to support themselves in a culture that has marginalized them. They are loving mothers and aunts living in a society that has always oppressed and exploited their people.

They have survived and prospered, however, by developing social support systems to help them rise above their implanted immigrant status and lack of social capital.

In a 2014 survey of over 2,100 non-profits by The Non-profit Marketing Guide, a majority of non-profits identified a "clear strategy" as their number one challenge. Considering how important the "big picture" is to Non-profit, it surprised me that they identified "clear strategy" as a challenge.